Hebrews 3:12-15 ( NKJV )
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
In looking at this very important topic, we have learned that Israel, despite the fact that they had seen the greatest demonstrations of supernatural power in history, could not enter their promised land because they hardened their hearts. I believe we stand at the entrance to another kind of promised land. God is going to move in power once again. The church has not seen this kind of move for a very long time. We must be careful that we do not allow the same thing to happen to us that happened to them. We must not harden our hearts.
A hard heart does not mean we are unresponsive sinners that God can’t do anything with. It simply means that we have allowed disappointments or failures or just the wear and tear of life to take away our edge. We stop expecting and begin just drifting. We don’t think in terms of destiny but in terms of survival. This is not what God wants for us.
I want to include a list of some things that hardness of heart produces. You can read the scriptures later.
1. Heb. 3 Causes God’s anger to come against us
2. Heb. 4 Causes us to fail to enter the rest He desires for us
3. Job 9:4 Cannot prosper
4. Prov. 28:14 Falls into mischief
5. Prov. 29:1 When we harden our hearts under reproof we are destroyed suddenly and without remedy
6. Jer. 7:26 Our ears become dull to both the written and spoken Word of God
7. Daniel 5:20 Robs us of our Kingly authority
8. Matt. 13:15 Robs us of understanding which leads to healing and deliverance
That is not a list we want in our lives. How can we avoid this happening to us? In the verse above there is a major clue. We need to beware of an evil heart of unbelief. That is difficult language. When we come to the place of hardness, we don’t want to call it evil. We want to call it sadness, disappointment or unfair. The bible says they came to this emotional and psychological place because of unbelief. It calls unbelief evil.
There is no way around this part. If we want to break up hardness of heart we need to repent of unbelief. What is unbelief? There is no real mystery here. There is no hidden nuance of definition. It is not believing God will do what He said He would. It is a lack of faith. God calls that evil. We can understand why He would say this about Israel. God had done such mighty things for them. They had seen such power exercised on their behalf. To doubt that God could drive out any obstacle in the way of their possession of the promised land is clearly evil. God had proven Himself. That is the message of Hebrews 3.
What about you and me? Do we somehow have a right to unbelief? We haven’t seen Red Seas parted. We haven’t seen a nation destroyed, its first born dead its army drowned, on our behalf. Does that mean our lack of faith and trust in God is somehow understandable? Not in God’s eyes. Hebrews is written about the Israelites but it is written to the church. Unbelief is unbelief and it is always evil.
God loves you. Some things in life may not work out the way we would like. Sometimes we misinterpret the Word of God or what He has spoken to us personally. When this happens we may be disappointed. That is normal. We may get a little hesitant. We may want a little more confirmation before we “step out on the water” as Peter did in the Gospels. That is all understandable. Non of that is evil.
It becomes unbelief, and therefore evil, when we allow these things to cause us to stop believing God or when we allow ourselves to become cynical about the potential for God to move. How do you react when you hear a message about faith. What do you say to yourself when someone speaks of how God is going to move. Do you feel negative? Do you respond with an “I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude? Have you come to the conclusion that it is better just to lean on the flesh then to risk trusting God with anything important. That is an evil heart of unbelief.
What can we do about this condition. Repentance is a 3 step process.
- Accept that something is sin according to the word of God
- Accept responsibility for the sin and sincerely ask for God’s forgiveness
- Turn around and go the other way
If we will do these things, and put our minds back in the Bible so faith can come, we will begin to see our hardness diminish and God can move in our lives once again. The real enemy to this process is pride. We don’t like to admit we are wrong, but we like other people to see a change that tells them we were wrong even less. That has to be put away. If we want the best God has for us we must give Him our pride.
What does this have to do with a move of God in the earth? God moves through His people. He wants to move through you. if He can’t He will use someone else. I want Him to move through me. I must get rid of any hardness in my heart.
(I have a book on this topic called “How to Deal With Hardening of the Heart.” It is available as a free PDF file at http://www.livingwordgreene.com/media/books/Overcoming_Hardening_of_the_Heart.pdf)
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